As Heard on The Stephanie Miller Show

Friday, January 27, 2006

The world view of the United States has worsened in the past few years, thanks to the Bush regime. This does not help:

By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent

The U.S. Army in Iraq has at least twice seized and jailed the wives ofsuspected insurgents in hopes of "leveraging" their husbands into surrender,U.S. military documents show.

In one case, a secretive task force locked up the young mother of anursing baby, a U.S. intelligence officer reported. In the case of a seconddetainee, one American colonel suggested to another that they catch her husbandby tacking a note to the family's door telling him "to come get his wife."

The issue of female detentions in Iraq has taken on a higher profilesince kidnappers seized American journalist Jill Carroll on Jan. 7 andthreatened to kill her unless all Iraqi women detainees are freed.

The U.S. military on Thursday freed five of what it said were 11 womenamong the 14,000 detainees currently held in the 2 1/2-year-old insurgency. Allwere accused of "aiding terrorists or planting explosives," but an Iraqigovernment commission found that evidence was lacking.

Iraqi human rights activist Hind al-Salehi contends that U.S.anti-insurgent units, coming up empty-handed in raids on suspects' houses, haveat times detained wives to pressure men into turning themselves in.Iraq'sdeputy justice minister, Busho Ibrahim Ali, dismissed such claims, sayinghostage-holding was a tactic used under the ousted Saddam Hussein dictatorship,and "we are not Saddam." A U.S. command spokesman in Baghdad, Lt. Col. BarryJohnson, said only Iraqis who pose an "imperative threat" are held in long-termU.S.-run detention facilities.

But documents describing two 2004 episodes tell a different story asfar as short-term detentions by local U.S. units. The documents are amonghundreds the Pentagon has released periodically under U.S. court order to meetan American Civil Liberties Union request for information on detentionpractices.

In one memo, a civilian Pentagon intelligence officer described whathappened when he took part in a raid on an Iraqi suspect's house in Tarmiya,northwest of Baghdad, on May 9, 2004. The raid involved Task Force (TF) 6-26, asecretive military unit formed to handle high-profile targets.

"During the pre-operation brief it was recommended by TF personnel thatif the wife were present, she be detained and held in order to leverage theprimary target's surrender," wrote the 14-year veteran officer.

He said he objected, but when they raided the house the team leader, asenior sergeant, seized her anyway."The 28-year-old woman had three youngchildren at the house, one being as young as six months and still nursing," theintelligence officer wrote. She was held for two days and was released after hecomplained, he said.Like most names in the released documents, the officer'ssignature is blacked out on this for-the-record memorandum about hiscomplaint.

Of this case, command spokesman Johnson said he could not judge, monthslater, the factors that led to the woman's detention.

The second episode, in June 2004, is found in sketchy detail in e-mailexchanges among six U.S. Army colonels, discussing an undisclosed number offemale detainees held in northern Iraq by the Stryker Brigade of the 2ndInfantry Division.

The first message, from a military police colonel, advised staffofficers of the U.S. northern command that the Iraqi police would not takecontrol of the jailed women without charges being brought against them.In asecond e-mail, a command staff officer asked an officer of the unit holding thewomen, "What are you guys doing to try to get the husband — have you tacked anote on the door and challenged him to come get his wife?"Two days later,the brigade's deputy commander advised the higher command, "As each day goes by,I get more input that these gals have some info and/or will result in gettingthe husband."He went on, "These ladies fought back extremely hard during theoriginal detention. They have shown indications of deceit and misinformation."